Availability of highly reactive halogen ions at the surface of aerosols has tremendous implications for the atmospheric chemistry. Yet neither simulations, experiments, nor existing theories are able to provide a fully consistent description of the electrolyte-air interface. In this paper a new theory is proposed which allows us to explicitly calculate the ionic density profiles, the surface tension, and the electrostatic potential difference across the solution-air interface. Predictions of the theory are compared to experiments and are found to be in excellent agreement. The theory also sheds new light on one of the oldest puzzles of physical chemistry -the Hofmeister effect.PACS numbers: 61.20. Qg, 82.45.Gj Since van't Hoff's experimental measurements of osmotic pressure more than 120 years ago, electrolyte solutions have fascinated physicists, chemists, and biologists alike [1]. The theory of Debye and Hückel (DH) [2] was able to address almost all of the properties of bulk electrolytes. On the other hand, electrolyte-air interface remains a puzzle up to now. The mystery appeared when Heydweiller [3] measured the surface tension of various electrolyte solutions and observed that it was larger than the interfacial tension of pure water. While the dependence on the type of cation was weak, a strong variation of the excess surface tension was found with the type of anion. The sequence was reverse of the famous Hofmeister series [4], which was known to govern stability of protein solutions against salting-out. An explanation for this behavior was advanced by Wagner [5] and Onsager and Samaras [6] (WOS), who argued that when ions approach the dielectric air-water interface, they see their image charge and are repelled from it. This produces a depletion zone which, with the help of thermodynamics, can be related to the excess surface tension. The theory and its future modifications [7], however, were unable to account for the Hofmeister series and showed strong deviations from the experimental measurements above 100mM concentrations. The fact that something was seriously wrong with the WOS approach was already clear in 1924, when Frumkin measured the potential difference across the airwater interface and found that for all halogen salts -except for fluoride -the electrostatic potential difference (air − water) was more negative for solution than for pure water [8]. This suggested that anions were able to approach the interface closer than the cations, or even be adsorbed to it! This contradicted the very foundation of the WOS theory. The confused state of affairs continued for the next 70 years, until the photoelectron emission experiments [9, 10, 11] and the polarizable force fields simulations [12] showed that Frumkin was right, and ions might be present at the interface. The situation, however, remains far from resolved. Simulations predict so much adsorption that the excess surface tension of NaI solution becomes negative, contrary to experiments [13]. Furthermore, while the electron spectroscopy was findin...

A theory is presented which allows us to accurately calculate the surface tensions and the surface potentials of electrolyte solutions. Both the ionic hydration and the polarizability are taken into account. We find a good correlation between the Jones-Dole viscosity B coefficient and the ionic hydration near the air-water interface. The kosmotropic anions such as fluoride, iodate, sulfate, and carbonate are found to be strongly hydrated and are repelled from the interface. The chaotropic anions such as perchlorate, iodide, chlorate, and bromide are found to be significantly adsorbed to the interface. Chloride and bromate anions become weakly hydrated in the interfacial region. The sequence of surface tensions and surface potentials is found to follow the Hofmeister ordering. The theory quantitatively accounts for the surface tensions of 10 sodium salts for which there is experimental data.

We explore the effects of counterion condensation on fluid-fluid phase separation in charged colloidal suspensions. It is found that formation of double layers around the colloidal particles stabilizes suspensions against phase separation. Addition of salt, however, produces an instability which, in principle, can lead to a fluid-fluid separation. The instability, however, is so weak that it should be impossible to observe a fully equilibrated coexistence experimentally.

The relationship between enhancement flow and structure of core-softened fluids confined inside nanotubes has been studied using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. The fluid was modeled with different types of attractive and purely repulsive two length scale potentials. Such potentials reproduce in bulk the anomalous behavior observed for liquid water. The dual control volume grand canonical molecular dynamics method was employed to create a pressure gradient between two reservoirs connected by a nanotube. We show how the nanotube radius affects the flow enhancement factor for each one of the interaction potentials. The connection between structural and dynamical properties of the confined fluid is discussed, and we show how attractive and purely repulsive fluids exhibit distinct behaviors. A continuum to subcontinuum flow transition was found for small nanotube radius. The behavior obtained for the core-softened fluids is similar to what was recently observed in all-atom molecular dynamics simulations for classical models of water and also in experimental studies. Our results are explained in the framework of the two length scale potentials.

We present a theory of dilute aqueous suspensions of microgel particles. It is found that as the number of charged monomers in the polymer network composing mesoscopic gel increases, the particles undergo a swelling transition. Depending on the hydrophobicity of the polymer, this transition can be either continuous or discontinuous. Furthermore, similar to charge stabilized colloidal particles, we find that the electrophoretic mobility of the microgel is controlled by an effective charge. Unlike the colloids, however, for which the effective charge grows asymptotically with the logarithm of the bare charge, the effective charge of an ionic microgel scales as Z eff ϳZ 0.5 . The findings are in good agreement with the experimental measurements.

To explore charge regulation (CR) in physicochemical and biophysical systems, we present a model of colloidal particles with sticky adsorption sites which account for the formation of covalent bonds between the hydronium ions and the surface functional groups. Using this model and Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the standard Ninham and Parsegian (NP) theory of CR leads to results which deviate significantly from computer simulations. The problem of NP approach is traced back to the use of bulk equilibrium constant to account for surface chemical reactions. To resolve this difficulty we present a new theory of CR. The fundamental ingredient of the new approach is the sticky length, which is non-trivially related with the bulk equilibrium constant. The theory is found to be in excellent agreement with computer simulations, without any adjustable parameters. As an application of the theory we calculate the effective charge of colloidal particles containing carboxyl groups, as a function of pH and salt concentration.Electrostatic interactions play a fundamental role in physics, chemistry, and biology. The long-range nature of the Coulomb force, however, makes it very difficult to study theoretically 1 . In aqueous systems ions are usually hydrated by water molecules. On the other hand, acids lose proton, which associates with the water molecule forming a hydronium ion 2 . There are many reactions that are controlled by pH, and the acid-base equilibrium directly influences the functionality of biomolecules. Although pH can be easily tuned in experiments, it is much more difficult to account for the chemical equilibrium in theoretical and simulation studies 3 .Colloidal particles often have organic functional groups on their surfaces. In aqueous systems these groups dissociate, loosing a proton, resulting in a colloidal surface charge 4-7 . The amount of surface charge strongly depends on the pH of the environment 8,9 and is controlled by the chemical equilibrium between hydronium ions and the functional groups. This process is known as charge regulation (CR) 10-16 . The concept of charge regulation was first described by Linderstrøm-Lang 17-19 and studied theoretically by Ninham and Parsegian. 20 . CR is of fundamental importance in colloidal science 10,21-32 and biophysics 33-39 . It has been applied to explore the stability of electrical double layers 9,40-45 and is of great technological importance in fields as diverse as mineral preparation, agriculture, ceramics, and surface coating 46 .Consider a weak acid HA in equilibrium with bulk water, HA+H 2 O ⇄ H 3 O + +A -. For dilute solutions the concentration of all species is controlled by the law of mass action, K eq = c HA /c A -c H +,where K eq is the equilibrium constant and c indicates the concentration of each specie. Ninham and Parsegian (NP) supposed that the same equilibrium relation will hold for the reactive (acidic) sites on the colloidal surface with the local concentration of hydronium determined by the Boltzmann distribution, c surfq is the proto...

We study the effect of confinement in the dynamical behavior of a core-softened fluid. The fluid is modeled as a two length scales potential. This potential in the bulk reproduces the anomalous behavior observed in the density and in the diffusion of liquid water. A series of N pT Molecular Dynamics simulations for this two length scales fluid confined in a nanotube were performed. We obtain that the diffusion coefficient increases with the increase of the nanotube radius for wide channels as expected for normal fluids. However, for narrow channels, the confinement shows an enhancement in the diffusion coefficient when the nanotube radius decreases. This behavior, observed for water, is explained in the framework of the two length scales potential.

A simple model is presented for the appearance of attraction between two like-charged polyions inside a polyelectrolyte solution. The polyions are modeled as rigid cylinders in a continuum dielectric solvent. The strong electrostatic interaction between the polyions and the counterions results in counterion condensation. If the two polyions are sufficiently close to each other their layers of condensed counterions can become correlated resulting in attraction between the macromolecules. To explore the counterion induced attraction we calculate the correlation functions for the condensed counterions. It is found that the correlations are of very short range. For the parameters specific to the double stranded DNA, the correlations and the attraction appear only when the surface-to-surface separation is less than 7 A.